With Coach Spoelstra's constant encouragement and persuasive words, the Heat players began to feel a glimmer of hope.
Finally, it was 8 p.m. Both teams' players had come—
At last, when it was 8:00 p.m., both teams' players had made their way to the sidelines.
The big screen displayed the starting players for both teams.
Aside from special circumstances, the Raptors' Starting Lineup had barely changed all season.
Wang Yi, Zhang Jiacheng, Hachimura, Dauding, and Pang Bo.
At Shooting Guard, this lineup was strong—extremely strong!
The center position was strong, too.
But the other three positions were suddenly much weaker.
On both offense and defense, the other three positions were nowhere near good enough.
Although Zhang Jiacheng had made it into the NBA through sheer determination, he was still at an inherent disadvantage. Beating his man with one hand was naturally nowhere near as strong or effective as doing it with two.
That disadvantage was even more pronounced on defense.
Hachimura was already old. His lateral speed couldn't keep up with the opposing forwards, and he was often beaten with a single step.
On offense, all he could do now was catch and shoot the occasional three, make a cut now and then, or dunk under the basket.
The pull-up mid-range jumper he'd had in his younger days was gone.
As for Dauding, although he'd developed a bit of a mid-range game and was decent on the boards, he lacked the talent to contribute more than around ten points a game.
He simply couldn't do more than that.
As for their bench, the Raptors' reserves had always been among the worst in the league. Across the entire NBA, they ranked last in bench scoring, averaging just 10.3 points per game.
That made it all the more necessary for Wang Yi